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THE GENIUS AND POSTURE OP AMERICA. 



AN 



ORATION 



DELIVERED 



BEFORE THE CITIZENS OE BOSTON 



JULY 4, 1857, 



WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER. 



WITH PREFACE AND APPENDIX. 




BOSTON: 

OFFICE BOSTON DAILY BEE-No. 7 STATE STREET 
1857. 



t 



v.. 



PREFACE. 



Absent among the mountains of New Hampshire for a week 
after the Fourth of July, I knew not what a turmoil had been 
raised over my innocent Oration. The bitter attacks it had drawn 
forth did not disturb my enjoyment of the charm and peace of 
nature there. But the abuse heaped on me by an unscrupulous 
press, has now become a matter of notoriety ; and, in yielding to 
many requests for an authorized pamphlet edition of the Oration, 
a few prefatory remarks will be appropriate. 

I was certainly surprised to find that the deterioration of senti- 
ment and the inversion of principle in our country had gone so far 
that an Oration strictly adapted for a celebration of the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the legitimate institutions of the 
Republic, should be considered unfit for the Fourth of July, and 
should prove so distasteful to " men who stand high in the com- 
munity." How far we must have drifted from the principles 
which the country publicly professes, when a Fourth of July 
Oration, in order to be palatable, and to win " thanks," must be 
filled with subserviency to Slavery, and with praise or silence 
towards the nefarious acts of a corrupt administration ! There 
are men, it seems, by whom an oration, fit to be delivered on the 
Fourth of July, cannot be listened to with comfort. Is the fault 
in the truth, in the utterance of it, or in the men whose vice and 
dishonor it smites ? 

To retort the satire, falsehood, and insult with which some of 
the newspaper attacks on my Oration are filled, would not be 
difficult, though it would be tedious : but the scurrilous spirit 
of wounded hatred which they betray is beneath the dignity, as 
it is contrary to the principles, of a Christian man. To the high- 
minded lovers of right, freedom, and humanity, it would be suffi- 



cient reply to those articles to state the names of the papers in 
which they were published. What slight force they have, even 
there, is due to their anonymousness. If the authors' names were 
appended, in most instances they would serve as discharging con- 
ductors, immediately emptying the sentences of influence. 

A person asked to deliver an oration on the Fourth of July may 
accept the invitation as offering an opportunity either for mere 
self-display and self-advancement, or for the utterance of thoughts 
and sentiments which he believes to be true and useful. Had 
the former been my aim, I should have launched into an indiscrimi- 
nate glorificLition of the country, office-holding partisans, office- 
seeking demagogues, slavery, and all. The latter being my motive, 
I tried to praise what is worthy in the country, censure what is 
vicious, recommend what is right, and warn against what is wrong 
and ominous. It is for a straightforward fulfilment of this pur- 
pose that I have been so harshly censured. KnoAving that I have 
done but my duty, the attacks are harmless and welcome, and 
should be even were they a thousand times as numerous and 
bitter. 

One journal, with characteristic decency, and with characteristic 
manliness, insinuates that my motive in writing the Oration Avas 
a pecuniary one, and insinuates it anonymously. " Let us have 
the whole hundred dollars' worth," it cries. That paper is hereby 
informed that the city government of Boston do not pay their 
Fourth of July orators any thing for the three or four weeks' labor 
required of them to prepare for those occasions. In other places 
such performances are paid for ; but a judicious economy is 
exercised here. The reward of the orator here is either in having 
earned the approval of his OAvn conscience, by uttering patriotic 
counsels, or in receiving an official vote of thanks from the city 
authorities. The former is amply sufficient. But it is rather 
hard to attempt to deprive the speaker of both. A Mr. Wight- 
man said, in a reported debate of the board of aldermen, " The 
orator was invited to deliver an address carrying out the views of 
the Declaration of Independence." The sequel shows that I was 
not invited to do any such thing. For it was precisely that which 
I did. O, it is sickening to hear men eulogize the Declaration of 
Independence, while they are trampling its propositions under 
their feet ; to hear men scream for " liberty " and the " rights of 
man," in sonorous phrases, while in spirit and deed they scoff the 



reality ; to hear demagogues talk of patriotism, while their whole 
conduct proves that their highest idea of serving the country is to 
fawn on the ruling party for the sake of getting a support from 
the national treasury ! 

It is easy on the Fourth of July to praise the dead heroes of a 
past age, and magnify their meritorious achievements, as the 
Pharisees whitened the sepulchres of the prophets : but it is 
nobler to breathe their spirit, emulate their consecration to the 
same great cause of justice and freedom, and so to re-enact their 
parts amidst the altered emergencies of the present age. 

It is easy, on the Fourth of July, to indulge in boastful gener- 
alities which have been in all men's mouths, and to please the 
majority with selfish flatteries which need no thought and no 
courage ; but it is nobler to grapple with the subjects belonging 
to the occasion, and to utter the convictions which are the result 
of independent reflection. The only defence of my Oration which 
respectable minds will ask, is, that in the spirit of the day, in full 
harmony with the memories of the Revolution, and the genuine 
principles of the Republic, I expressed those views which, as a 
Christian and a patriot, I believed to be true and needful for the 
country, and which I felt bound in honor to express. That is 
defence enough. 

I have been abused, repeatedly and foully, for calling " men 
who stand high in the community" flunkeys. It is a falsehood, 
a mean attempt to awaken prejudice, and fasten odium. The 
writer who speaks of my " ungentlemanly slander of Mr. Win- 
throp," ought to be ashamed of so disengenuous an attempt to 
turn the popularity of a favorite name into disgust and hatred 
against me. He is welcome to the honor of it. However richly 
a large number of " men who stand high in the community " deserve 
the epithet, flunkey, for their cowardly silence and contemptible 
servility before the Slave- Power of the South, I have not applied 
it. I did characterize the act of introducing James M. Mason to 
a Massachusetts audience on Bunker Hill, under the circum- 
stances, and in the peculiar manner in which it was done, as an 
act of " complimentary flunkeyism." And I deliberately maintain 
that the phrase fitly characterizes the act. I thought the words 
ought to be used. They were used ; and they will stand. Look 
at the facts. This slaveholder has grossly insulted our Congres- 
sional delegation in private and in public, carrying his insults so 



6 



far, on at least one occasion, that our distinguished Senator, Avhose 
forbearance is great, was forced openly to rebuke his "plantation 
manners : " he has deliberately belied and insulted the whole 
body of JS'ew England clergy, adding, that any sort of connection 
with them would '•' contaminate " the clergy of the South : he 
wrote a letter of admiration and love to the " Brooks Festival," '* 
the ovation given to that saint and hero of South Carolina, on his 
triumphal return from an attempt to murder an unarmed and 
defenceless Senator in the national capitol. This man, the open 
approver of one who proposed that the South should march to 
Washington with an army, seize the executive power, and rule the 

♦MASON'S DISUNION LETTER TO THE BROOKS FESTIVAL. 

[From the Charleston Mercury, October 9, 1856.] 

Seima, Frederick County, Va , ) 
29th September, 1856. J 

Gentlemen ; — I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 13th inst., inviting me, on 
behalf of the constituents of Col. Preston S. Brook.'!, to a dinner to be given to him by them, 
on the 3d of October next, in, ^^ testimony of their complete endorsement of his Congressional 
course.'''' 

It has been my good fortune to have enjoyed the acquaintance of your rtJ/e and justly honored 
Representative, on terms both of social and political intercourse, from his entrance to the 
House of Representatives : and I know of none ichose public career I hold more icorthy the full 
and cordial approbation of his constituents than his. 

He has shown himself alike able and prompt to sustain the rights and the interests of his 
constituents in debate and by vote; OR TO vindicate in a different mode, and under circum- 
stances of painful duty, the honor of his friend. I ivould gladly, therefore, unite tvith you, 
were it -in my power, in the testimonial proposed by his generous constituents ; but regret that 
the distance which separates us, and my engagements at home, must forbid it. 

Perhaps it may not be unacceptable, in closing this letter, to say a few words to my fellow- 
citizens of Edgefield District, whom you represent, on the condition of tlie country. 

None can mistake, or in the South can remain insensible to the times that are upon us. 

The issue (until now averted) between a numerical majority on the one side, and sworn faith 
to a written compact on the other, is about to be tried. The Southern States represent the 
minority, both in States and in people, on this issue. Not their property alone, but their 
honor and safety are at stake in the result; for I look on the pending election of a President 
interesting chiefly to the South, as it will be a type of opinion and purpose at the North. 
Reason and argument are exhausted — we have done whatever lay with us to bring the majority 
back within the pale of constitutional power; and can now only await the popular vote. 

Should it be found to stand by, and to uphold the Constitution, tiien we should once more 
look forward with confidence and hope to the continuance of a Union established in mutual 
and patriotic sacrifices, and having its sanction in fraternal faith. 

But in reverse of all this, should a dominant sectional vote be directed to bring into power 
those pledged in advance to break down the barriers interposed by the compact of federation 
for the security of one section against the other, then, in my calmest judgment, but one course 
remains for the South : Immediate, absolute and eternal separation. 

Better, far better, to stand toward the Northern States as we stand to the rest of the world 
— " Enemies in war, in peace friends " — than to remain halting under a common government, 
enemies under the guise of peace, friends at war. 

Again regretting, gentlemen, that I cannot be with you, 

I am, with great respect, 

J. M. MASON. 



1 

country henceforth — finds honorable gentlemen who are "proud" 
to introduce him where he ought to have been ashamed to come — 
to introduce him with gratuitous politeness, and with deferential 
compliments, both to him and to the State which he represented 
— a State particularly celebrated now for four things, ruins, 
bankruptcy, arrogance, and slave-breeding. And he, to show his 
sense of propriety and good taste, proceeded to give Massachu- 
setts the most exquisite insult she ever received, telling her, in 
almost so many plain Avords, not to send to Congress any more 
such Senators as Charles Sumner, but to send men who would 
submit to the dictation of slave-holders ! It was an act of " com- 
plimentary flunkeyism," and ought to be so styled. Is a Southern 
disunionist, who recommends a miserable minority by force to 
rend the country, that Slavery may be preserved, to be banqueted 
and applauded by the aristocrats of the country, while a Northern 
man, who wishes the majority, by legal voting, to acquire prepon- 
derance in the government, that liberty may be secured to all, and 
the country thereby be saved forever, is denounced as a traitor ! 
One of the writers who has attacked me in support of Mr. Mason, 
says : " A bruiser who should kick his antagonist, or strike him 
when down, or attempt to gouge him, would be mobbed on the 
spot by the ruffians of the ring." This is precisely what Brooks 
did to Mr. Sumner, and which Senator Mason approved in a de- 
liberate letter. If this man saw fit to show himself at Bunker 
Hill, he should have been treated with austere decorum. He 
received much more. How Avould Mr. Garrison have fared at 
a public celebration in Richmond ? Mr. Mason, judging from his 
antecedents, would have headed the mob. The one is not more 
identified with Northern fanaticism for Freedom, than the other is 
with Southern fanaticism for Slavery. 

During the very time when, in old Faneuil Hall, Charles L. Wood- 
bury, United States District Attorney, was saying : " If we are 
true to ourselves, and true to the principles of the Constitution, this 
Union will defy all monarchs, all tyrants, and all bayonets," and 
was greeted with vehement applause — during the very time when 
Charles A. Phelps, Speaker of the House of Representatives, after 
" hymning the blended glories of Saratoga and of King's Moun- 
tain, of Bunker Hill and of Yorktown," and after alluding in 
complimentary terms to " that distinguished son of Virginia," 
Senator Mason, " who very properly reminded us the other day at 



8 

Bunker Hill," etc., was declaiming : " The lesson whicli comes in 
fiery volleys from Bunker Hill to kings and cabinets, and princi- 
palities and powers, is, that they must not dare to outrage the 
sentiments of a free people" — at that very time, America was hold- 
ing over three millions of people in the crudest bondage known 
on earth. Aye, more than that. While the above words were 
pronounced to yells of tumultuous applause, three fugitive slaves 
who had fled to Nashville, Illinois, and had been pursued thither 
in the strength of the Bill which " that distinguished son of Vir- 
ginia" devised, were seized, and one of them, in the spirit of 
Patrick Henry, resolved on liberty or death, and resisting capture, 
was shot dead. This was the accompaniment to our bells and 
cannon ; this the echo of agony, crime, and horror, which made 
response to the sentiment of Faneuil Hall on the eighty-first 
anniversary of the glorious independence of the United States of 
America. I should have scorned myself forever after, had I suf- 
fered the opportunity of that day to pass without an uncompro- 
mising protest both against the Slave-Power of the South and its 
flunkeys in the North. If this be "treason," "vulgarity," "bad 
taste," or " malignant abuse," let the most be made of it. Some 
persons seem incapable of discriminating patriotic ardor from par- 
tisan zeal, — the eager attempt to compass a selfish end from the 
disinterested fulfilment of duty, — generous indignation from poi- 
sonous hate. The attacks of such are harmless, and their own pun- 
ishment is in them. Those persons who take every heai'ty word 
against corruption, demagogues, and slavery, or in behalf of purity, 
principle, and freedom, as a personal insult, and the speaker of it 
as a personal enemy, are surely as much to be pitied as they are 
to be despised. 

In reply to one attack on my Oration, I shall only say that the 
meanest and most spiteful of my assailants is W. W. Wheildon, 
editor of the Bunker Hill Aurora. 

In an Appendix may be found the speeches of Colonel Isaac H. 
Wright and myself at the Dinner, in Faneuil Hall, as they were 
reported in the Boston Daily Bee : also reports of the debates 
and votes in the board of aldermen and common council, upon 
the proposition to pass a vote of thanks to the Orator of the Day. 
It will be seen that we have men among us who are unwilling 
that any body shall face the music. The Appendix also has an 
account of the Fourth of July celebration in South Carolina. 



ORATION. 



The first duty of every American on this day, after 
he has reverently owned the kind providence of God, 
is to remember with grateful honors the heroic men 
who achieved our national independence. They deserve 
our honor for the firmness of their characters, and the 
devotedness of their deeds. They claim our gratitude 
for the examples they set before us, and the privileges 
they obtained for us. Brought up ourselves in the 
enjoyment of freedom — surrounded by safety, pros- 
perity, and the fulness of every human right — having 
never known any thing of the aggravating trials of 
despotic dictation, nor any thing of the sufferings and 
perils of an unequal confiict with it — it is hard for us 
to appreciate the appalling position of our fathers 
when they hoisted the standard of rebellion, and leso- 
lutely planted themselves at its foot. It is hard for us 
to appreciate the merits of their bearing in the thick 
and dark emergencies of the strife that ensued. To 
do this fully, we need to have experienced something 
like it ourselves : and that, owing to them, we have 
never been called upon to do. 

At the very outset their property sunk to half its 
value, and the whole trembled on a desperate risk. 



10 

At every turn the penalty of high treason — the black 
gibbet with its ghastly cord, the deathman's block and 
axe — gloomed in their imaginations. With each suc- 
cessive step, for a long time, their embarrassments and 
hardships grew heavier, discouragements flocked upon 
them, pitfalls lurked athwart their way, and deepening 
darkness covered the close. Still they yielded not ; 
but with wills like adamant, faith like inspiration, and 
self-sacrifice like martyrdom, they bore up the burden 
of the land, cheered the faint-hearted, and maintained 
their cause until a brighter day. If we could in 
imagination reproduce their circumstances, and place 
ourselves in their situation, and see what spirit and 
nerve it required calmly to confront, as a helpless 
handful of them did on the church-green, the minions 
of tyranny who coldly shot them down, their blood 
staining the April swards for many a hundred springs 
to come — without experience or discipline unflinch- 
ingly to face the serried and blazing ranks of the most 
veteran soldiery in the world, as they did in the sun of 
Bunker Hill with no weapons but their clubbed mus- 
kets and no defence but their farmers' frocks over their 
beating bosoms — to stand by the cause with incor- 
ruptible integrity and irrepressible hope when stagger- 
ing bribes beset them in field and forum, when traitors 
swaggered in the camp and tories swarmed in the 
town, and when the overwhelming forces of the foe, 
flushed with victory, drove them at every ^^assage — 
still to hold unfalteringly by their holy purpose, with 
no end but duty and no motive but freedom, vanquish- 
ing the temptations which must have/assailed them 
when, defeated, neglected, disheartened, their numbers 
fearfully thinned by battle, disease and hardship, 



11 

hunger reduced tliem to the gaunt verge of starvation, 
the winter's cold benumbed their emaciated limbs, and 
they reddened the snow over which they walked with 
their bare and bleeding feet ; — if by mental experience 
of this Ave Avere able for a moment actually to feel the 
merit implied in undergoing Avhat they underwent, 
daring and struggling as they dan^d and struggled, and 
accomplishing at last what they finally accomplished, 
we could not help setting their names on high, and 
often reverting to read their story with thrills of admi- 
ration. And Avhen Ave thought, in addition, of the 
illimitable benefits resulting from Avhat they did, Ave 
could not help celebrating their memories Avith peren- 
nial praises. " Yea," Ave should exclaim, " so often 
as the anniversary of their triumphant crisis rolls 
round, let the jubilant bells peal, and the thunderous 
cannon boom, and the gay flags flutter, and the peo- 
ple's jocund shouts greet the sun as he mounts in the 
morning: let the voices of eloquent orators, and the 
chanting of hymns, and the thrilling blasts of martial 
music, and every sort of rejoicing, all over the land, 
freight the air at noon, Avhile the statues of departed 
heroes and statesmen arc set up amidst acclamations, 
and emulous purposes are kindled in fresh aspirants, 
and groups of young men in athletic sports form living 
pictures on grass and stream, and innocent children 
Avith floAvers and mottoes moA^e in loA'cly procession 
through the streets ; and, when night falls, let gor- 
geous illuminations and pyrotechnics put out the stars ! 
Let all this be done, for it is right and Avell ! " Ave 
should say. 

Fortunately for us, and for the Avorld, their fidelity 
needed not the prophetic incentiA'e of posthumous 



12 

honors. They were of that stuff heroes are made of; 
and, cndurino- all things, hoping all things, they clung 
to their original objects till the stormy and disastrous 
night of their feebleness rolled away, and the morning- 
light of promise broke, and successive triumphs fol- 
lowed, and independence rose upon the land where, 
in the foreground, two groups reflected its earliest 
lustre in the adoption of the Constitution and the 
inaugm'ation of Washington. They lived — the most 
of them — to see their desperate enterprise crowned 
with complete success. And afterwards, year by year, 
as long as they lived, they saw more than the fulfil- 
ment of more than their most brilliant expectations. 
And when, attended by the benedictions of their covui- 
try, they went to the house appointed for all the living, 
they were comforted with the reflection that they had 
fought a good fight, and should leave their children an 
unparalleled heritage. 

Rapidly, too rapidly, the years have fled, and the 
grey revolutionary sires are nearly all gone. Only a 
few now linger, here and there, time-hallowed memo- 
rials of other days and of other men. Only a few 
scattered and tremulous stalks are left in the great 
field that has been reaped and garnered by death. 
Soon none at all will be left. Well, they will sleep 
in honored dust. The historian and the poet shall 
hand down their fame. As long as time endures, 
with this returning day their story shall be recalled, 
and votive wreaths be freshly twined around their 
names. Pious hands and fond hearts shall guard 
and deck their graves, and keep their monuments 
whole, and their memories green. This is little, but 
it is all they ask, and all that we can give. Shall we 



13 

ever fail to grant it ? No, not until we forget that 
while they vest beyond the touch of mortal feeling, the 
magnificent comforts we enjoy are the lineal fruits 
of what Avas willingly purchased for us by them at the 
price of their prayers, toils, tears and blood. Peaceful, 
then, be the slumbers of those who have fallen on 
sleep. "• Dying, they have but exchanged their coun- 
try's arms for their country's heart," wherein they 
shall live forever. Long may the survivors be spared 
to enjoy the public prosperity, and to read their reward 
in a grateful nation's eyes ! And when at length all 
shall have gone — when the whole country, amidst the 
mighty dirge of a pe(?f>le's grief, shall have poured its 
tears around the fresh grave of the last one — green 
be the turf above them, and hallowed the spots where 
they lie. Let the feet of happy children tread lightly 
there, and there the pilgrim patriot pause as he passes 
to invoke a blessing on their souls, and breathe a 
prayer for the land they served so well. 

Our distinct national existence began with the 
flinging forth of the daring and lofty manifesto 
known throughout the world as the American Decla- 
ration of Independence. We observe to-day the 
eighty-first anniversary of that proclamation. The 
theme best fitting such an occasion is obviously the 
characteristic privileges, duties and dangers of the 
country. To the treatment of that theme one reluct- 
ant word must form the introduction. Every honest 
patriot who this day speaks the praises of America 
must first confess — though it be wrung from him in 
shame and anguish — that so far as slavery extends its 
dismal anomaly over our soil, it is an unmitigated 
contradiction to his boasts. Where this welded mis- 



14 

fortune and sin exists, and while it lasts, our picturesque 
displays fade out in sable groups of woe, Aveary coffles 
and sundered families ; and the pa:ans of the platform 
die away in the wails of the plantation. But slavery 
is not iwoperly any f)art of our national government — 
not an element in our organic life, but a sectional 
disease, a temporary excrescence. It is rightfully no 
more a part of our country than a snake's nest is a 
part of a granite cliff. The Free States alone fairly 
represent the true genius and historic posture of the 
Republic. 

With the exception now stated, let us see in what 
particulars we, as a people, ari^ favored beyond the 
subjects of other nations. It will be useful to answer 
this question with distinct thoughts and feelings. For 
then we shall understand definitely what we have to 
be thankful for, to cherish, and to guard. 

First among our national advantages is to be reck- 
oned an organized political equality. No unjust and 
irritating favoritisms are interwrought with the order 
of our habits and the substance of our institutions. 
Among us is no legal distinction between peer and 
peasant, prelate and mechanic ; but before the laAvs 
of the land, and before the possibilities of life, all are 
politically equal. In the fixed and wonted enjoyment 
of this great right we have but the faintest conception 
of its im23ortance, and of the bitter grievances imposed 
on those who are deprived of it. What should we 
think if compelled to submit, as so many still are, to 
the law of primogeniture, by which nearly all the 
wealth of a family goes to the eldest male descendant, 
leaving the others dependent, and introducing, without 
a reason, the cruelest inequalies of social standing and 



15 

public opportunity even among members of the same 
household ? How should we feel if a large class, with 
no claim but ancient prescription, covered with hered- 
itary titles and honors, should lord it over the mass 
of the people, making thousands, far their superiors in 
every attribute of real greatness, cringe at their bid- 
ding ? What should we say if a set of men were born 
to be our rulers, whether fit or unfit, and if the chief 
offices of authority and emolument among us were 
filled by the incompetent favorites of pompous digni- 
taries, without consulting us in the least ^ The trial 
would be greater than we could bear. Heaven be 
thanked that we can choose our own men for our own 
offices ; that with us the condition of rank and glory 
is not the accident of family descent, but the possession 
of personal merit ; that there are here no impassable 
limits of caste, and hedges of grinding prerogative ; 
that with us the incentives to effort are diffused, and 
the doors of preferment are open to all, leaving every 
poor man's boy free to rise in proportion to his genius, 
virtue and labor, even till they bear him to the chief 
throne in the nation. This republican equality of all 
classes, and universal accessibleness of honors, is a 
glorious thing, that we do not think enough of, and 
cannot prize too highly. 

The next prominent ingredient in the happiness of 
our people, is the enjoyment of untrammelled speech 
and printing. We write, talk, and publish, without 
the galling interference of a despotic censorship. The 
press is free on these shores, however broadly it shines 
or threateningly it fulminates. There is no dictating 
official clique here, armed with absolute power by the 
government, to whom every author must submit his 



i6 

book before he dares to publish it, and at whose con- 
demnation it must be instantly suppressed. No ; our 
poets freely breathe forth the sentiments of their souls, 
— our historians and essayists discuss their subjects as 
they please, — our novelists write tales with w^hat moral 
they choose, — our reviewers criticize books, men and 
measures, according to their consciences or their fancies, 
— our wildest reformers scatter their fierce invectives 
and appeals in every mode and quantity, — and none of 
them has the slightest fear of a spy or an arrest. God 
made the heart and the intellect free, and consistent 
republicanism leaves the lips without a padlock, and 
the press without a hinderance, trusting that prepon- 
derant common sense and right feeling will, in the long- 
run, evolve the best results from full, unmolested 
argument. But it is not left so everywhere. There 
are countries wdiere sleepless, heartless tyranny, made 
cowardly and cruel by its peril, watches to suppress 
free thought, and to tread out the generous sparkles 
of its ashes. Official informers, paid and fed for the 
purpose, prying in every corner, snuft' the first breath 
of heresy, catch the first whisper of liberty, and 
straightway the w^ord goes forth from the priestly and 
political censors ; — the press of the printer is confis- 
cated, the editors are fined and degraded from their 
post, the authors go to the dungeon or into banishment. 
How galling such dictation must be to men of genius, 
compelled, on peril of every comfort, perchance of life 
itself, to hold down the words which burn for utter- 
ance, and which every honest thought and noble 
impulse tell them to shout aloud to heaven and earth ! 
Can we be half grateful enough that we are free to 
say and print, on any subject, what we believe is true 



17 

and ought to be proclaimed, with no dread of despotic 
supervision or judicial penalties ? 

The third benefit we owe to our American form of 
government, is theological freedom, an escape from 
religious disabilities and hierarchical tyranny. Jew^ 
and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, Orthodox and 
Heterodox — all possess the same unrestricted rights 
and immunities, all alike are eligible to every elective 
office; equal facility of access to every source of 
education, business, and preferment is afforded to all. 
In other ages it was not so. In other lands now it is 
not so. Even in free and favored England, bigoted 
rehgious proscriptions weigh on the whole realm, from 
the monarch, — who must be a sworn Episcopalian, 
and whose conscientious avowal of a different opinion 
would convulse the empire, and perhaps cause a dis- 
crownal, — to the peasant, who, if a dissenter, finds the 
national colleges shut from him, the appointing power 
of the State, the dread influence of the Church, and 
the vast patronage of the nobility, frowning upon him, 
and closing every door of privilege against him. The 
temptations to falsify his genuine convictions are thus 
brought to bear terribly on every gifted and ambitious 
man, and it is notorious that many of the ablest men in 
the Establishment, for the sake of retaining their places, 
sign articles which they both disbelieve and loathe ! 
What are a man's chances of executive recognition 
and preferment if he be a dissenter ] Though his 
eloquence shake forum and temple, and his genius 
illumine the earth, and his virtues awaken the admir- 
ing love of men, yet shall the government and its 
lackeys sneer at him and overlook him, and — unless 
the people defiantly lift him on their throbbing heart 



18 

to a level face to face with earls and dukes — he shall 
remain in neglected obscurity, while supple mediocrity, 
by conforming to the orthodox statutes, rises from 
station to station, receives title after title, and rolls 
through princely parks in the envied wealth and pomp 
of a state-minister, or flaunts its bloated luxury in 
metropolitan sees. Such a state of things arouses the 
indignation of the good, ruins the souls of the weak, 
disturbs the religious peace, and corrupts the moral 
health of the kingdom. In this respect how favored 
are we ! Every person may follow and avow his real 
religious preferences without any public disability or 
social injury, according to the provisions of the con- 
stitution and the hearted customs of the people. So 
ought it to be. What a man shall believe, as he lives 
in this solemn universe, is a sacred thing between him 
and his God. No tampering of bribes and threats 
should ever be suffered to interfere with it. The 
deliberate organization of such an influence is a 
gigantic outrage, so old and so common on the earth 
that we ought to rejoice heartily at being free from it. 
Fourthly, we enjoy in this country a whole class of 
priceless privileges which may be comprised under the 
general description of exemption from all those enor- 
mous, unrighteous, vampire burdens of accumulated 
debt, war-establishments, feudal laws, tythings, brood- 
ing antiquity and fear, which crush the over-crowded 
populations of the old world to the earth, and dram 
out the energy of their- life-blood. From the intolera- 
ble load of these transmitted and growing ills we are 
delivered. A form of government marvellously cheap, 
nearly all the business being transacted by the people 
themselves in their primary town meetings, at small 



19 

expense of time, and less of money, — makes our tax- 
ation light. We are neither goaded by the arrogant 
whims and ruled by the selfish policy of an autocrat, 
nor insulted with the mockery of a royal family on 
whom we are obliged to lavish millions a year, for no 
service they render, but simply that they may honor 
us by living in magnificence and riding in state, being 
guarded by bayonets and gazed at by gaping crowds ! 
No interest on immense debts, unjustly incurred ages 
ago, bearing only the fruit of blood, wretchedness, and 
starvation, — no swollen salaries paid to locust hordes 
of useless officials, — no priestly tythe.s enforced whether 
we will or not, wring away the honest earnings of 
our independent laborers ; but a simple, self-ruling 
democracy, peace and plenty, the common school, the 
open church, and all the natural rights of the indi- 
vidual, uninfringed, make them happy and contented. 
In this refulgent summer day, as they pause, leaning 
on their scythes, and wipe the sweat from their 
brows, and look around on the teeming fields to be 
distrained by no cormorant landlords ; or as they quafi" 
refreshment from the mossy old bucket poised on the 
well-curb, — deeply should they sympathize with the 
sufiering peasantry of other lands, and bless the unri- 
valled institutions of their own. 

Unlike some nations, where a mob in a single city 
has repeatedly built and unbuilt the entire government 
in twenty-four hours, we are not at the mercy of local 
excitements. The safe and extended stability of our 
country is such that before one of these surprising 
effervescences can spread far enough for serious alarm, 
it cools and dies. Therefore we are not afraid of 
sudden explosion and reTOlutionary overthrow. Our 



20 

government has an expansiveness, a flexibility, a recu- 
perative power, that mock at such fears. No legitimate 
evil can reach a really dangerous pitch before the 
popular election may redress it. As, when winter 
comes, the snow flakes easily and gently descend, and 
clothe the fields with a garment of freshness, hiding 
the filth of decay and the ruggedness of the rocks ; so, 
without difficulty or turmoil, when the majority wish 
it, the ballots of this free people fall, and spread a new 
law over society, beneath which the ugliness of wrong 
and the noise of contention disappear. In the old- 
world countries the antiquated customs, dead traditions, 
burdensome rules of bygone ages still cramp the minds 
and hearts of men, as the crushing armor of those 
times would their bodies if they now wore it. With 
us no such things remain. We have thrown them 
away, never more to shackle with the iron bigotries of 
the past, the buoyant movements of our free spirits. 
Here, on this young westeru strand, exempt from the 
ills that curse and paralyze other nations, bidding a 
frank good-by to the worn-out things of old, we have 
taken possession of a new country, victoriously fought 
a new battle and founded new institutions, and are 
now training ourselves up, a newly commingled people, 
who, animated with new plans and faith, the morning 
sunlight of heaven's guiding favor on their foreheads, 
and the great clock of time striking a new hour in the 
affairs of mankind, shall press forward to new destinies, 
resplendent with unimagined boons of freedom and 
love. 

In view of the fact that we are enjoying such glo- 
rious advantages, what is the true mission of America"? 
Evidently it is to preserve, increase, and perpetuate these 



21 

blessings here, and to try to secure them elsewhere. 
The work providentially brought before this people, in 
the line of the testamentary ages and experimenting 
nations, jDlainly is the organization of political and 
social liberty in just and beneficent institutions. And 
how clear it is that to do that well, and establish the 
perfect result firmly, setting its grand and shining 
success on high before tlie unimpeded gaze of mankind 
in such unstained brightness and towering eminence 
that purblind tyrants shall own that they see it, and 
lynx-eyed critics confess that they discern no flaw in 
it — is the way to do the utmost good for the other 
nations of the earth ! Regarding this point as admit- 
ted — namely, that the mission of our country, both 
for her own lasting salvation and for the redemption 
of her groaning brother-lands, is to achieve, and en- 
throne in dazzling exhibition to the world, a national 
example of political perfection — the most important 
part of our theme at once opens upon us. The 
question, charged with those grave considerations 
which ought to occupy the attention of every citizen, 
irresistibly rises — What are our immediate duties as 
constituents of the Representative Republic of the 
world ^ 

The indispensable work reaching through the whole 
scale of our obligations, is to secure national righteous- 
ness at home. In the first place this is the most 
immediate requisition of morality. The essential thing 
for a man or for a nation to do is to put away vices, 
and cultivate virtues. This is the eternal claim whose 
light and sanction no one can avoid seeing and feeling, 
whether he obeys or not. We as a people are bound 
to strive with banded earnestness to purify the land 



22 

from every removable iniquity, and fill it with all 
attainable righteousness : because by the terms this is 
the very meaning of the word diitij^ the vitality of the 
moral law. If an individual who was cruel and selfish 
in his family, careless and fraudulent in his business, 
should go about urging the claims of domestic love 
and mercantile integrity, every one would say that he 
had perversely mistaken his vocation, that his real duty 
was to reduce right principles to practice in his own 
sphere. So with a nation : its first obligation, its very 
function, is to organize justice, freedom, and benefi- 
cence in its own laws and life ; to plant liberty on its 
public hills, joy in its private valleys, holiness in its 
courts, and mercy in its highways. The nation that 
recklessly disregards that, tramples on the elements of 
ethics, insults mankind, and defies God. A genuine 
patriotism will, therefore, labor to destroy the wrong 
and build up the right in its country, for the same 
reason that a pure and undefiled religion visits the 
afflicted, and keeps itself unspotted from the world: 
namely, that that is the very essence of its being. 

But, secondly, Ave must endeavor to establish 
national righteousness at home, because that is the 
only possible way of securing permanent success and 
prosperity. Without internal holiness — conformity to 
that rule of right which is the will of God, in its 
institutions, laAvs, character and conduct — no nation 
can long stand. Every reality of things and of morals 
is unchangeably leagued and invisibly arrayed against 
it. Every omen is sombre, the perilous portents of 
retribution swarm around, and the day of downfall 
moves fatally on. Crime inevitably breeds trouble. 
Sin is necessarily cumulative and destructive, like an 



23 

obstructed river. Injustice is essentially disorganizing 
and revolutionary. It is the nature of evil that it 
cannot stay quiet, but must work, and grow worse, 
spreading and dilating till it snatches the flash of rev- 
elation and shudders with the bolt of judgment. Let 
a palpable wrong be in the working machinery of the 
State, and, if it be suffered to continue, it will produce 
friction, interference, extending disorder, till all is 
stopped in a general crash. Wherever there is, in the 
political fabric of society, an organized unnecessary 
evil of any kind, it infallibly provokes hostility, awak- 
ens dissension, and causes deepening danger and alarm, 
till it is removed. Those whose moral convictions it 
offends, must protest and strike against it. Those 
whose interests it injures, will be indignant towards it. 
Those whose selfishness it subserves and whose pre- 
judices it pleases, with reckless fierceness will seek to 
uphold it. And so all passions are enlisted, and the 
debate gets loud, and animosities are inflamed, and 
plots and counterplots are laid. Meanwhile, if it be 
an actual wrong, and be forcibly maintained, the ele- 
ments of explosion are mustering and muttering, and 
at last break out in the lurid upheaval of mobs, insur- 
rection and mutual terror, — to result, perchance, in 
successful revolution, perchance in suppressal by a four- 
fold heavier despotism, or, perchance, in utter ruin. 
The history of the past reads us many a dread lesson 
like that. 

The dead nations whose giant skeletons now lie 
bleaching and crumbling on the sands of time, all died 
of sin. It was their crimes that dug their graves, 
and pushed them in. Licentious luxury sapped the 
strength and rotted the virtue of one — and it disap- 



24 

peared beneath the green pool of its own corruption. 
Brutal war, made a business of, and carried in every 
direction, drew upon another the wrath of the world 
—and it was dashed upon the rock of its own bar- 
barous force. Domestic bondage, grown enormous, 
trodden under foot, and goaded to madness, rose on an- 
other — and buried it in the conflagration and slaughter 
of its own provocation. Internal antipathy, based on 
sectional differences, fed by selfish interest and taunt- 
ing debate, finally exploded in the quarrelling parties 
of another — and hurled its dissevered fragments to ruin 
by the convulsive eruption of its own wrong and 
hatred. Of all the mighty empires whose melancholy 
ghosts now pace the pallid margin of oblivion, not 
one ever sunk but its fall w^as through internal ini- 
quity in some way or other. Shall the stately shade 
of republican America too, go down to join the doleful 
company of crowned spectres, moving them beneath 
to rise up at her coming with the sardonic mock, 
" Art thou also become as we ? " If we would avoid 
their doom of vengeance we must not tread their path 
of guilt. 

In complete opposition to this nature and effect of 
wickedness, righteousness in a nation's politics and 
dwellings has a vivifying jDOwer, an assimilating and 
preservative tendency. The people whose rights are 
equally secured to them all, whose interests are well 
protected, who, free from irritating wrongs and jeal- 
ousies, may all alike approach the sublime gifts and 
opportunities of nature and society, can hardly help 
dwelling in contentment, and flourishing in progres- 
sive strength. The secret causes of convulsion or 
decay do not exist there, but all are sympathetically 



25 

happy — from the counting-room millionaire, watching 
his complex web of enterprise, to the hillside plough- 
boy, whistling an echo to the lark in the clouds — and 
their country may well hope to survive forever. 

We ought to strive towards this end also because 
it is the direct way to exert the strongest influence for 
good upon foreign countries. Indeed without the 
realization of internal integrity, we can do very little 
good abroad. Our example will be so sullied and 
compromised as almost to be spoiled and powerless. 
Our brave preaching will be flung back to us with the 
taunt, " Physician, heal thyself" But let us lift up a 
front of unmarred holiness above all our hearths and 
altars — let there not be a single shackled bondsman 
in our territory — let there be an entire consistency 
between our organized customs and our glorious pro- 
fessions — let us show here a vast land with no lower- 
ing military, because peace and safety are so stable ; 
with no sickening almshouses, because there are no 
paupers to need them ; with no dismal prisons, because 
there are no criminals to require them ; bounteous fruits 
loading the fields, smiling faces lining the streets, the 
awful and resplendent eegis of righteousness extended 
firmly over all — and the spectacle of that spotless 
Hepublic would be an omnipotent ''power on earth" — 
would set the gazing nations delirious with one com- 
mon accord to imitate it. 

The first duty, therefore, of every American, is to 
cleanse his country from wrong, and to establish 
impartial righteousness at home. He must lend his 
aid in every proper method to those reforms which aim 
to remove human bondage, intemperance, the gallows, 
and every other legal crime and shameful custom 



26 

fastened on us in the pagan night of the past : that no 
more manacled hands and streaming eyes may be 
upturned, pleading to us for pity and to heaven for 
justice ; that no more corpses, swinging in the gibbets 
of our jail yards, may curdle the blood of Christianized 
humanity in its veins ; that the matted and seething 
masses of licentiousness and pauperism, abated from 
their degrading dens, may no more infect and upbraid 
our civilization. Let this be done, and we shall indeed 
be blessed within, and influential without. Our coun- 
try will be an impregnable fortress, furnished to stand 
the eternal seige of the elements ; and our people, if 
ever alien hosts should threaten, animated by one 
resistless impulse, will gather at the landing, and either 
whip them from the shore, or bury them in the strand. 
But if our institutions and conduct are righteous, 
there will be no occasion for any thing of that sort. 
For, the second emphatic obligation resulting from 
the American posture is to preserve national fraternity 
in its relations abroad. To such an attitude, unless 
absolutely driven from it, Ave are pledged by the his- 
toric policy of our wisest men, urged by the force of 
interest, and bound by the sanctity of right. There 
may be different opinions upon some particulars touch- 
ing our duty towards foreign races, but a few points 
are unmistakably clear. In the first place, we can- 
not help sympathizing profoundly with the victims of 
oppression in Italy, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Ire- 
land, and elsewhere. Their children starving, their 
hands tied, their mouths stopped, their noblest repre- 
sentatives pining in prison, or wandering broken- 
hearted in exile; — in our favored circumstances to 
view these facts, and then to withhold all commisera- 



27 

tion from the sufferers, and refuse them a welcome 
here, would be to prove our souls alien from every 
moral attribute of God, and recreant to every generous 
fibre of humanity. Exempt here, under the palladium 
of our democracy, and in the citadel of our independ- 
ence, from all the stinging wrongs heaped on the per- 
secuted laborers and patriots of despotic countries, 
cold and mean is the heart that will not waft them a 
sigh of sympathy, and offer them a cheerful invitation. 
Our forefathers meant this land should be an asylum 
where the hunted exile might come and find shelter 
and brotherhood. So may it ever be ! Let the mighty 
doors of the AVest, through which the setting sun 
rushes in floods of gold and purple, stand wide open 
for the longing multitudes to come in. What though 
they share our plenty and lessen our monopoly? They 
are our brothers ; and their coming diminishes the 
average wrong and misery of humanity ; and, mingling 
with our republican population, there will be so many 
happy freemen the more. Ay, let them come, with 
our hearts' greeting, for we have room enough. Let 
their axes wake the echoes of the primeval forests, 
their ploughs and spades encroach on the boundless 
prairies, and the smoke of their cabins curl to the 
astonished clouds, in those teeming regions where 
lonesome nature yet waits for the ornament and hum 
of man's companionship. 

But this sympathizing reception of the spurned 
laborers and flying refugees of other lands does not 
bind our country to be made a common sewer and 
receptacle for the offscourings of the old world, the 
emptyings of its jails, hulks, almshouses, and hos- 
pitals. This indecent outrage has been deliberately 



28 

inflicted upon us too long. Have we not a right 
to protect ourselves against the ravenous dregs of 
anarchy and crime, the tainted swarms of pauperism 
and vice Europe shakes on our shores from her dis- 
eased robes ? When this naked mass of unkempt and 
priest-ridden degradation, bruised with abuse, festering 
with ignorance, inflamed with rancor, elated with blind 
expectations, has sprung on our continent, and turning 
round, shakes its ofl"cast fetters and rags in one hand, 
brandishes sword and torch in the other, its eyeballs 
glaring vindictive rage upon the governments which 
have expatriated it, — shall we, Avithout the slightest 
regard to its preparedness, our own safety, or the peace 
of the world, give this monstrous multitude instanta- 
neous possession of every political prerogative, letting 
it storm our ballot-boxes with its drift of mad votes, 
and fill half our offices with its unnaturalized fanatics "? 
Our own sons serve an apprenticeship of twenty-one 
years to republican institutions before they can throw 
a ballot or occupy an elective seat. Should not the 
banished insurgents, the honest immigrants, the unfor- 
tunate exiles, who seek a new home here be willing 
to undergo a probation in some degree proportionate 1 
Above all, should not that foreign spawn, which, with 
fierce and idiotic stubbornness, persists in remaining 
foreign in the midst of us, keeping alive all its old 
clannish peculiarities, and refusing to blend itself, by 
assimilating processes, with our composite and hos- 
pitable nationality, — should not this alien horde be 
compelled to refrain from ruling America until it has 
become a little Americanized 1 This should be insisted 
upon, for a few such viperous traitors as those whose 
incendiary appeals and fiendish curses against their 



29 

native country have thickened our air ever since they 
landed — if admitted to influential public posts among 
us, might transform the Genius of America, now stand- 
ing tiptoe on the kindling mountains of the West, a 
halo on his serene forehead, and a peace-branch in his 
hand, into a stamping Fury, mustering a fleet of war- 
ships, and foaming through the sea towards the cliffs 
of England. 

Not only are we to give a friendly reception to 
those deprived of what we enjoy, considering them as 
good as ourselves, and entitled to all our privileges 
just in the degree that they become a part of our 
nationality; we may, furthermore, utter the earnest 
expostulation of our public sentiment against the 
injustice under which they groan in theii- native 
countries. But we ought, before doing this, to clear 
our skirts of the glaring inconsistencies which will 
provoke retort and rob our appeals of their divine 
point. And we ought to make our protest in a moral 
tone, without arrogance or threats. After all, we 
shall bave to trust for real influence in improving the 
old world despotisms, to the power of our example. 
Set before the rulers and their people the example 
of our exuberant and diffused natural wealth, the 
rapidity of our unrivalled growth, the self-directing 
quietude of our prodigious power, our enthusiastic 
popular patriotism, — set this in significant contrast 
with their starving poverty, overshadowing alarms, 
revolutionary outbreaks, compulsory standing armies, 
general disaffection, and retrogression or paralysis. 
Let that contrast be seen and felt, and it must work 
far more mightily than any other agency we can 
devise. 



30 

Let not Americans be deceived with the vain notion 
that by a propagandist war they could overthrow 
monarchy and estabUsh repubhcanism abroad. While 
the people in despotic countries are unequally pitted 
against their prescriptive oppressors and need military 
help from without, obviously the fit time for a forcible 
change has not come. Any physical interference on 
our part, upon whatever pretext, would be equally a 
mistake and a tragedy. There is hardly a government 
in the Eastern hemisphere which woidd not, at the 
first signal of such a thing, join a coalition of crowned 
heads against us ; and after wading in carnage up to 
our horses' bridles, we should reap only a disastrous 
discomfiture. I know the specious plea which may 
be made, under certain cii-cumstances, in behalf of such 
an enterprise. I know the attraction with which a 
generous heart, full of faith and sympathy, will respond 
to it. The blood must tingle and jump when one 
of our chivalrous countrymen, in answer to the magic 
voice of Kossuth, cries : " Unfurl the stars and stripes 
on the plains of Hungary in front of a hundred 
thousand American freemen, and then welcome be the 
armies of perjured Austria to the shock." The soul 
stirs wildly at the thought. But ah ! the Angel of 
Humanity would hover o'er the death-strown field, 
and when the night-damp fell, bedew the mangled 
forms of her children with her tears. Long enough 
has this sort of experiment been tried ; long enough 
have men sought redemption by battle, rending the 
nations with hate, and baptizing the new-born children 
of liberty in blood ! Now, let a different course be 
fully tested. Let us improve the unparalleled oppor- 
tunity Providence has given us, to try the policy of 



31 

peace and magnanimous example. From all mortal 
contests — in the name of righteousness — in the name 
of humanity — in the name of Christ — in the awful 
name of God — stand we aloof, henceforth, with clean 
hands ! If our brethren of the old countries cannot 
gradually win democratic emancipation by ripening 
steps of reform, but are compelled to snatch the prize 
with violence, when, at length, the rising regiments of 
the populace strike, we shall best keep the laws of 
wisdom and right, and best subserve the real interests 
of the world, not by plunging into the murderous 
struggle, but by tilling our fields and tending our 
tasks, praying God to preside over the issue which we 
may not arbitrate, and when the last great tempest 
of revolution has passed, to span the Eastern firmament 
with a bright republican bow, like that which soars 
across our Western. 

Under the leading of a manifest destiny, fate sitting 
on our helms, a demonic audacity possessing our wills, 
inevitable victory following our march, we have 
already fought no less than seven wars. First we 
contended with the jealous Aborigines ; secondly with 
the allied French and Indians ; then with the British, 
first when we were a colony, afterwards when we 
were an independent nation ; next with the pirates 
of Barbary ; then with the despairing Seminoles ; and 
finally with the weak and bewildered Mexicans. Our 
cannon have volleyed, our banners have flapped, our 
sabres have dripped, our bugles have sung triumph, 
from the wigwams of the Pequot and the fortress of 
Tripoli, to the swamps of Florida and the heights 
of Monterey. From the death of king Phillip to the 
fall of Vera Cruz, our eagle, with fatal swoop and 



32 

clutch, has pounced on his quarry, and slowly floated 
off, gorged and incarnadined. Surely we have done 
enough of this bloody business. It is time we were 
sick of it. A¥e are strong enough not to fight any 
more. By straightforward justice, conciliating heed, 
and intelligent industry, we can amply protect ourselves 
and conquer opposition. Let us now distrust and 
chock the passion for military aggrandizement. For 
the future, let us swear by our altars, our homes, our 
thriving villages, our fruitful fields, and the lovely 
canopy smiling over them, that we will cherish peace 
as the central duty of our posture, and the blessedest 
boon of Heaven. However numerous and astonishing 
our victories in the past, however ascendant our fatal- 
istic star in the present, let us remember it is still 
recorded in holy writ, that sooner or later " God 
scatters the jjeople that delight in wary 

The same extravagant self-estimate, lawless passion, 
uneasy and audacious vanity, which have been eager 
for a foreign crusade, have also broken forth in fillibus- 
tering expeditions, winning favor from a large class of 
the population. The fact that such forays, insulting 
the civilization of the century, have been so powerfully 
aided, so openly applauded, so generally winked at, is 
disgraceful and ominous. It reflects infamy on our 
government that an iron hand of suppressal was not 
promptly laid on these marauding parties. The un- 
principled characters, the cruel and treacherous conduct 
of their leaders, are helping to bring on them the 
odium they deserve. The atrocious violation of all 
law which they directly propose in their predatory 
programme, is their unmitigated condemnation. The 
shocking massacres and utter failure which have 



33 

resulted thus far, check them for the present. But 
new expeditions are threatened. The very spirit of 
the enterprise riots in the breasts of thousands. And 
unless the indignation of the higher public, or the too 
long slumbering arm of the executive interfere, we 
may soon see the tragedy of the last year re-enacted on 
a vaster scale by a fresh irruption of United States 
rufRans upon the unhappy fields of South America. 
If we must have for our own that mighty country, 
so wretched with misrule, so rich in array of tropical 
splendors, so neglected and undeveloped, — how much 
better to win its voluntary entrance. State after State, 
into our Union, by the overpowering attraction of an 
example of universal liberty, justice, peace and happi- 
ness, than to harrass and repel it by sallies of brigands, 
who track every step of their way with pillage and 
murder ! Let superior advantages of stable rule, 
freedom and prosperity, be plainly attainable from 
annexation to us, and Central America may be drawn 
to us and absorbed by her own desire. But gangs of 
outlaws, robbing and claiming by sheer crime and 
force, will hardly add any more to our territory than 
they will to our reputation. If henceforward we could 
so quicken the moral sentiments and sanctify the will 
of the nation as to curb its rampant pride, prevent 
filibustering, and avoid Avar, we should escape one 
of our greatest dangers — an easily besetting clanger, 
Mhicli has proved the downfall of many a powerful 
people before us. 

The next palpable danger of our country is from 
the prevalence of egotistic demagogues, who crave 
notoriety and spoils, but care not for principle, the 
honor of the nation, or the good of the world. Such 

5 



34 

a style of character is apt to appear in leaders and 
aspirants among a constituency whose ignorance and 
coarseness, taken with low qualities, make idols of the 
mere declaimer and braggadocio. This evil is fearfully 
rife in many parts of the land, and thoughtful men 
must put forth strenuous efforts against it ; for when 
the voters, through crudeness of mind and degradation 
of feeling, select for their offices the showy sophists 
and rough champions who cater to their prejudices 
and wheedle their simplicity, then peril is imminent. 
Between the vile example of immorality and insubor- 
dination set by those in high places, and the mobocratic 
spirit in the Sovereign herd below, what can be 
expected but pitched battles between rival claimants 
for the functions of favoritism and the emoluments of 
patronage, and the summary execution of its own 
behests by every excited multitude ? Herein lies the 
deadliest foe to a democracy. And when a public 
functionary, from sinister motives of rewarding partisan 
service foully rendered, gives an office to a brutal 
bully — be he the mayor of a city appointing a police- 
man, or the President of the United States appointing 
a marshal — he insults the majesty of his prerogative, 
disgraces himself, and should be smitten M4th popular 
disapprobation. Whoever in any degree or manner 
helps to keep alive and pamper the spirit of bludgeonry, 
is the worst curs^ of his country. Under republican 
institutions, where equal law has its way, where the 
free ballot-box can swiftly end any grievance, and 
establish any right, a resort to insurrectionary violence 
is absolutely inexcusable. . Whoever, therefore, incites 
a mob is guilty of the most aggravated offence possible 
to a citizen. There is no telling where the evil will 



35 

stop. Every ringleader in such an outbreak deserves 
instantly to have a bullet in his brain. 

General culture is the solid foundation beneath free 
institutions, the guardian wall around them, and the 
high watchtower upon them ; because, where educated 
intellect and retined sentiment are prominent traits in 
electors, they quickly discriminate between the philan- 
thropic statesman who is to be revered and followed, 
and the reckless adventurer who would welcome in 
any form an eruption of the worst passions of the 
populace, hoping in the confusion to snatch the reins 
of notoriety, and ride into power ; — between the dema- 
gogue who flatters and cajoles the people, making use 
of them to compass his own ends, and the patriot who 
disinterestedly seeks, by reason and right alone, to 
enhance the welfare of his countrymen. They accord- 
ingly take good care to secure for their leaders, teachers 
and rulers, men of enlarged views, elevated principles, 
peaceful spirit, honest and generous policy. The eagle 
is the national symbol, common to both our demagogues 
and patriots. By stigmatizing every appearance of 
the demagogue spirit, and applauding every manifesta- 
tion of genuine patriotism, let us see that our country 
be truly represented, not by the imperious fierceness of 
that majestic bird, but by his royal courage ; not by 
his terrible talons and ravening beak, that drip with 
the blood of the lamb and the sparrow, but by his 
peerless eye, that never blenches in the blazing beams, 
and his wondrous wing, that outwearies the tug of the 
tempest and sails above the thunder. 

For the healthy state and adminfstration of affairs 
in a democratic country, it should be found that the 
common sentiment is formed and guided by the wisest 



36 

and best, from above the level, — not by the most 
conceited and unprincipled, from below it. Scholars, 
divines, civilians, statesmen, authors — the most compe- 
tent students of subjects — those whose lives are devoted 
to moral and intellectual pursuits, in their several 
spheres, should try to correct and lead, not echo and 
flatter, public opinion. It is alike shameful and 
alarming that the press, the pulpit, the forum, are so 
often occupied by men who, either from want of mind, 
or from selfish and cowardly subserviency, do not give 
the direction which is needed, but talxe that which 
suits the majority. Every man in a public post who 
falls in with this common meanness and evil, should 
be hissed from his place, to make way for one of 
nobler aim and sterner stuff. In this respect it seems 
as if there were a growing degeneracy among us. 
Have we not editors, who form no opinion of their 
own, or, forming one, never stand by it ? Clergymen, 
who say a man need not follow his sense of right"? 
Representatives, who make speeches of hollow fustian, 
cast votes for unqualified infamy, diversify the tedium 
of Congress by the interpolation of drunken brawls, 
and profane the steps of the capitol with murderous 
assaults'? Upon their debauched brows a nation's 
scorn should be branded while they live, and out of 
their avoided graves, when they die, nightshade should 
grow. The indifference of a large part of our popula- 
tion to the character and fitness of the men they elevate 
to stations of trust and power is wicked and insane, 
Its consequences may at any time plunge us headlong 
into the flaming abyss of civil strife, or the Charybdean 
jaws of foreign war. Verily a ncAV proclamation is 
wanted in our national hustings, of what are the first 



37 

rudiments of morality, manliness, and merit ; affirm- 
ing in every ear and conscience, what appears not to 
be understood, that the true qualifications for office 
are not drunkenness, pugilism, licentiousness, and 
bribery ; but virtue, intelligence, loyalty, experience 
and patriotism. 

Another danger to which we are exposed, is, from 
the craft and ambition, the stealthy plots and cruel 
oppressiveness, of the priestly spirit, claiming that its 
ritual holds the exclusive means of salvation, and that 
its head is vested Avith supreme authority. We have 
among us, powerless at present, but diligent, unscru- 
pulous, selfish and arrogant as ever behind its feigned 
meekness, sleeplessly biding the time when it may 
un sheath its claws, and assume total supervision of 
school, pulpit and press, and make the State its supple 
instrument — that priesthood, which, wherever it may 
roam, still preserves its denationalized unity, paying 
fealty to one celibate old man ; remaining always a 
separate body in the midst of the people ; seeking its 
OAvn corporate ends at the expense of every thing else. 
Romanism is as much a grasping political, as it is 
an irresponsible spiritual, power. Flourishing best 
among a people characterized by superstitious peurility 
of thought and abject dependence of condition, it estab- 
lishes eternal ignorance and beggardom that it may 
possess eternal dominion. Its unearthly pretensions 
and persecuting mind necessarily make it an enemy to 
the genius of republican institutions ; and it must at 
any cost be kept from seizing here those coveted privi- 
leges which it so tyrannically exercises in Catholic 
countries. Could the prisons of the Papacy this day 
burst, and show their contents to the light, America 



38 

would stand aghast at the gigantic cruelty, and oppose, 
with leaoued conscience and heart, the insinuating 
advances of so fell and remorseless a power. If it 
only had authoritative sway, no Protestant teacher or 
author Avould for a day be allowed to exercise his 
functions unmolested, nor could the secular govern- 
ment ever be free from its Jesuitical intrigues and its 
theocratic assumptions. It has boasted that the Pope 
shall yet set up his chair on the Pocky Mountains, and 
it Avill spare no pains to compass that fond consumma- 
tion. Its propagandist zeal Hits from the damp mould 
of mediaeval vaults — a helpless and malignant bat — 
and hangs over the open nest of America in the demo- 
cratic sunlight of the nineteenth century, from its 
wings dripping sacerdotal poison on our young eaglets. 
Let care be taken that neither the papal, nor any other 
hierarchical priesthood, ever obtains power on these 
shores to apply the rack and faggot, Avhich are legiti- 
mate and eternal contents equally of its faith, its logic, 
and its spirit ! 

But such are the elastic strength and remedial 
vitality of our national organism, — such are the con- 
spiring agencies of providential destiny combined to 
neutralize the hurts and shocks, and aid the victorious 
course, of this country, — so irresistibly do our palpa- 
ble interests, as well as our solemn duties, plead for a 
policy of internal development by the arts of peaceful 
industry, casting discredit on the crimson lures of con- 
quest, — so spontaneously do the affairs of our thrifty 
and energetic people prosper, whether fostered or 
neglected by legislation, — so smoothly do the wheels 
of our governmental mechanism run and achieve its 
functions, easily recovering from any friction or strain 



39 

resulting from the carelessness or rashness of unfit 
overseers, — such a tremendous check and healing 
power for the abuse and damage inflicted by dema- 
gogues and traitors, exist in the limited prerogatives 
and brief tenure of our officials, and in their condign 
dependence on public opinion and the electoral urn, — 
and so rootedly averse is the whole genius and opera- 
tion of our institutions to the domination of a priestly 
heirarchy whose history is hateful to the mind of 
democracy, whose antiquated dogmas, heartless for- 
malism, and Pharisaic haughtiness, are irreconcilable 
with the fresh thought, practical taste and social 
generosity of our people, — that America might laugh 
to scorn all the evils threatened by her irritable, 
pugilistic pride, by her army of selfish politicians, 
pledged to mere party, and every four years, clamor- 
ously knocking at the official doors, as if they were 
inscribed, " Ask, and ye shall receive," and by the 
determined encroachments of a cunning sacerdotal 
ambition — did not that fearful curse and danger, the 
problem of slavery, lower over the land, the pro- 
digious horrors its bosom holds big with j^ortents of 
explosion, the rasping hostilities its relationship 
engenders charging the sultry atmosphere with angry 
lightnings of debate. 

For three-quarters of a century, the constitution 
has re-enacted for America the part of Amphion, to 
whose charmed strain the spontaneous stones moved 
and built the capital of Boeotia. So, to the music of 
the Union, our more than Theban walls have been 
rising, and are rapidly building still. On this, the 
anniversary day of the first triumphant prelude of that 
edifying music, it were a delightful privilege, if we 



40 

might, for one hallowed hour, forget every later aliena- 
tion, turn from every unwelcome sight, listen not to 
a single dissonant note, but revive the old concord that 
made our fathers one, and let the souls of our people, 
from the lumberers of Aroostook to the miners of 
Mariposa, all flow together in common memories, loy- 
alties and hopes. Alas, that patriotism, honor and 
religion should unite to dispel the vision, and forbid 
the dream ! 

The fierce clamor of the slaveholding interest for 
more room, fresh prey, new chains and whips, and a 
longer lease of power, drowns the voices of the Revo- 
lutionary Fathers, vilifies the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, incenses the country, disgraces the age, and 
insults the world. The madness of these retrograde 
fanatics, facing directly into barbaric night, seriously 
threatens the disruption of our Union, the extinguish- 
ment of the world's latest, brightest expectations. 
This is no exaggeration. The infinite wrong the 
institution of slavery is in itself; the inexpressible 
wrongs it inflicts on its victims ; the insulting arro- 
gance it breeds, the deteriorating sloth it pampers, the 
loathsome lust it inflames and feeds, in the master ; 
the generous sympathies and moral sentiments it 
outniges in the contemplator ; — all these facts are neces- 
sarily fraught with the combustible elements of strife. 
Besides, the want of educational institutions, of high 
culture, of difl"used skill and enterprise — a want 
obviously attendant on Slavery — naturally leads to 
exhaustion of the soil, decay of wealth, and decrease of 
society, where it is long established, and so forces it to 
seek new territory. The North and the West, by their 
comparative enlightenment, liberty, and progressive 



41 

thrift, are giixling the South as with a ring of sacred 
fire. She must either get new hfe and land in Nebraska, 
Cuba, South America, or else die of inanition. The 
ruffian clutch on this resource by the Slave States is not 
more tenacious than the opposition by the Free States 
to such a profone seizure, is resolved. The contest 
between the obstinacy and aristocratic passions on one 
side, the firm convictions and clear lights on the other, 
is grave already, and more ominous ahead. 

Under these circumstances, appointed to speak on 
the Fourth of July to the citizens of Boston, I should 
deem myself a recreant son of old Massachusetts, 
guilty of a contemptible trick of cowardice, — the 
blood of the Fifth of March, 1770, would cry against 
me from the pavement of yonder street, — did I, while 
treating of our exposures, evade, through fear of 
touching a delicate subject, a frank reference to the 
chiefest evil and alarm of the land. That ostrich- 
policy, which, amidst thickening sounds of combat 
and signs of dissolution, hides the head in sandy gen- 
eralities, and, quietly ignoring the facts, babbles of 
peace and union, is neither manly nor useful. Far 
nobler is it, and better, to open the eyes, summon 
intellect, heart, and conscience to their work, and 
submit your conclusions with direct candor to the 
wholesome agitation of criticism and argument. 

One thing, then, is as sure as the footsteps of destiny, 
namely, that the battle between Slavery and Freedom 
in America is irreconcilable. One of the parties must 
triumph, and one must yield. Which it shall be, and 
how soon — there all the question lies. Now, while 
different observers of our national horoscope trace 
the dim star-runes to different issues — it is thus that, 

6 



42 

earnestly gazing there and listening, I read the scroll 
of fate and interpret the voice of duty. 

There are four conceivable modes of action, one of 
which must be followed, and Ave may take our choice. 
First : If the Slave States would, as every truth in 
sound policy, as all calm and devout wisdom, requires, 
seek, in union with the Free States, by any feasible 
means, to deliver themselves and the country from the 
wretched misfortune of negro bondage, we might hon- 
orably co-operate with them, and bear a generous 
portion of the pecuniary burden and of the tutoring 
responsibility. Would to heaven that might be ! But 
plainly it cannot be at present. Judicial delusion and 
exasperated obstinacy, prevent it. It can come only, if 
at all, when accumulated defeat, perplexity, pecuniary 
ruin and social peril leave the infatuated, baiRed 
oppressors no other door of relief. 

Secondly : If the Slave States, confessing the insti- 
tution to be an unhappy accident, a pernicious mistake, 
and its removal a desirable consummation, would let it 
be limited to its present domain, with no effort to for- 
tify or to spread it, honestly allowing it to gradually 
ameliorate and diminish before the light of a higher 
polity, and under the influence of natural causes, the 
purer instincts of men, the laws of political economy, 
and the requirements of righteousness, — we might 
justifiably consent, standing on the provisions of the 
Constitution, to compromise so far as to wait patiently 
the time of its legitimate surcease. But how clear it 
is that in their frenzy they will do nO such thing! 
Under a perturbed judgment, they are, for the first 
time, asserting the divine right and benignity of slave- 
holding, identifying their total welfare with iis contmu- 



43 

ance, and devoting their entire energies to its diffusion. 
Day and night they are plotting for new fields, reckless 
of the means, and devising new entrenchments. With- 
in the year, with incredible impudence and piratical 
animus^ they have clamored on the floor of Congress 
for the legalized reopening of the African slave-trade 
— the most unrelieved system of robbery, murder, and 
oppression ever revealed in history. Afhrming the 
sectionaUsm of Freedom, and the nationality of Slavery, 
they insist on our complicity with them, commanding 
us to serve as dogs to hunt and return their panting 
fugitives. Can we endure this, and sit tamely down, 
and do nothing to stay the advance of the all-grasping 
despotism I No, by heaven, no ! It is hard enough 
to leave the evil alone where it is, until what time its 
unnourished being might end. But when its support- 
ers demand more of us than that, they ask too much. 
We cannot let it tramp over its sectional bounds with 
obscene hoof to befoul the fountain heads of new 
States, and roil the silver spring where our national 
eagle drinks. 

Thirdly : If the Slave States be suffered to retain 
the preponderant shaping power which their single- 
aiming persistency has given them in the government, 
and to carry their policy through, concentrating the life- 
passion and stake of the country in Slavery, why then 
America will inevitably be plunged into the lowest pit 
of infamy, and thence into bottomless ruin. Demoral- 
ization, poverty, hostility and contempt from abroad, 
war, and at last, black destruction, will be unavoid- 
able consequents. On the other hand, if we, while 
refusing to submit and go with them, permit them in 
their selfish revulsion to withdraw from the Union and 



44 

set lip a separate confederacy, a great Slave Empire 
covering the southern half of the continent, the terri- 
ble crisis will not thereby be averted. The conflicting 
ideas, interests, sentiments, of North and South will 
then be vastly aggravated, and present restraints no 
longer be felt. Dislikes will be fomented, jealousies 
rankle, quarrels occur, and fraternal slaughter unques- 
tionably close the day. 

Fourthly : There remains, therefore, but one course 
for the Free States to follow, and in that course inter- 
est and duty blend their parallel lines to form a plain 
path. We must rally in our might at the ballot-box, 
and assume that controlling power in the national 
government which properly belongs to us. On the 
basis of the Constitution, in the spirit of the Fathers, 
we must organize a party animated by the American 
ideas of democratic liberty and progress, to take the 
legitimate supervision of our public policy, and to 
mould our legislation in such a way as to secure the 
strict confinement of Slavery to its present possessions, 
and so to provide for its final abolition. Such a party 
can be formed in a magnanimous spirit of justice and 
kindness to all, equally generous to the slaveholder, 
considerate to humanity, and loyal to God. Its first 
victory will carry the Declaration of Independence into 
the sky of the Supreme Court, where each one of its 
" glittering generalities " will be a bright particular 
star to guide the oppressed out of their bondage. The 
Free States are simply called on to unite in one grand 
party of righteous sentiment, take lawful possession of 
the executive power, and direct the future conduct, of 
the country. This power is our right by the demo- 
cratic rule of majorities, and w^e have been bullied out 



45 

of it too long ; for the free voters outnumber the slave- 
holders, ten to one. To wield it is also our duty, 
because our civilization is higher, our temper purer, 
than theirs : and the superior ought to govern the 
inferior. JVe contend by argument, example, and 
persuasion ; thej/, by knife, pistol, and mob. When 
we are lifting our marble martyr to his niche on 
Bunker Hill, the odious slaveholder who forced the 
Fugitive Slave Bill down our throats, is introduced, 
with com.])\imeiitn,r J flunkei/ism* in the very shadow of 
the awful place, and we listen to his haughty-toned 
commonplaces with respectful patience: thej/ v/Hl not 
permit a harmless private abolitionist, known to be 
such, to enter one of their villages, except at the immi- 
nent risk of outrage and death ; and notoriously there 
is hardly a slaveholding community in the country 
where a free word in public on this subject will not 
raise a mob to hang the speaker on the nearest tree ! 
Furthermore, the Free States are obligated to rouse 
and conjoin their forces to snatch the national execu- 
tive from the slaveholding oligarchy, because other- 
wise the doom of the Republic is sealed: for lasting 
peace and safety are wholly impossible, except in the 
triumph of right and liberty. Then they will be 
secured ; for we can, if we will, easily wield the pre- 
rogatives of a ruling majority, and execute the behests 
of just principles with a high right arm. And it is 
the only way to save the country. If we unitedly 

* This phrase was enunciated with emphasis, and was greeted with 
sharp hisses and overwhelming applause, long-continued and thrice- 
repeated. When the commotion had subsided, the speaker said : " Those 
hisses convey both the spirit and the wgument of the Slave-Power and its 
lovers." 



46 

resolve upon it, the South will be as impotent to resist 
right and wise measures, as we shall be able to enforce 
them, as helpless to destroy, as we shall be competent 
to preserve, the Union, and to punish every attempt to 
thwart its great ends. Our duty, accordingly, in rela- 
tion to Slavery, is, by consolidated voting to shut it 
within its jail-limits, and cut off its nutriment. Then 
it will die, and we .shall stand justified. If we do 
not this, we shall deserve to become a byword and a 
hissing forever. 

America is at once the oldest and the youngest of 
nations. Inheriting the experience of the past, the 
ages of foregone countries are to be added to hers to 
date her true longevity. Just started on her career, 
the first throbbing glow of promise and ambition in 
her veins, with fuller knowledge, with new elements 
of success, and under more auspicious conditions than 
any ever enjoyed before, humanity and the world watch, 
with unprecedented intensity of interest, the incidents 
of her course and the goal of her destination. Shall 
her children fail her now ? O let them see to it that 
she is represented before the nations in a manner 
worthy of her peerless endowment and her provi- 
dential mission. Let not America appear, in genius 
and posture, a booted and spurred Fillibuster, in 
tawdry uniform and bristling with weapons ; not a 
propagandist slave-driver, with slouched garb and 
furious mien, a whip in one hand, a bowie-knife in 
the other, the hated renegade of the world ; but a 
virgin Goddess, newly descended on the summits, 
olive and sheaf in her grasp, love and futurity in her 
eye, celestial wisdom on her brow, and the hemisphere 
at her feet. 



47 

If all warning omens be neglected, and our really 
good and able men stand back, refraining from their 
proper place and part in public affairs, and dema- 
gogues and mobs be suffered to rule, and fanatics feed 
their bale-fires, and the war- spirit be nourished, and a 
foreign clergy carry out their plans, and it be attempted 
to enlarge and eternize the organic injustice and excite- 
ment of Slavery — then, just so surely as human nature 
remains what it always has been, fatal alienations will 
spring up, public sentiment will be demoralized, and 
passion will be embittered, till some earthquake of 
party madness yawns for our fabricated strength, or 
some volcanic insurrection overwhelms the scene in a 
deluge of fire and blood. There are lessons for us of 
this sort in the shuddering annals of the past, which I 
need not draw ; and portents of dreadful note for us 
in the dilating controversies and corruption of the 
present, which I will not describe ; because there are 
also fair prospects for us in the promising possibilities 
of the future, to which I eagerly turn, to close in a 
tone of cheer more befitting this festive day. 

There is, I believe, a better fate in store for us and 
our children, than that prophecied by the lugubrious 
croakers of the time. The day brightens above Kansas. 
Conscientious citizens are arousing to their duties. 
The moderates — the golden party of reason, justice 
and liberty — will overbalance the fevered extremists of 
both sections, and rally a majority around the genuine 
mission of our country, inspired with love and resolve 
to defend from every enemy, within and without, the 
forlorn cause of free self-government, the precious 



48 

legacy inherited from all tlie ages gone and now jeop- 
arded here in this pass of the world. It is in the 
power of that party, within the present generation, to 
shape for this continent the stupendous issues of the 
future ; and they are trying to do it. Be their num- 
bers reinforced, their zeal augmented. Go, all faithful 
men, to their side, and labor with heart and hand to 
conform your country's laws and policy to the ideal 
standard of domestic righteousness and universal fra- 
ternity. Looking about your broad home-borders, say 
to Slavery, Intemperance, Ignorance, and the various 
shapes of sensualism and sin : " Avaunt ! fell fiends, 
horrible forms of crime and woe, brooding threats, 
begone from our coasts ! " Then, gazing across the 
sea, exclaim with open mien and frank voice : 

" Though dwelling in a far off isle, 
We bear no hate to other lands, 
But think that all the earth might smile 
If they and we but joined our hands." 

Let that spirit be cultivated and that work be pur- 
sued by the mass of the American people, and year 
after year the results will be seen in the diminution of 
the evils which now so sadly qualify our honor, our 
safety and our influence, and in the purification from 
all its stains of that banner of stripes and stars, whose 
solemn and splendid folds, streaming from the central 
mountains, shall yet be reflected at once in the girdling 
waters of the North, and the East, and the South, and 
the West ; when this entire continent, untrod by the 
foot of a Slave, unprofaned by the throne of a Tyrant, 
unshadowed by the mitre of a Priest, shall be one 



49 

united nation, poweiful enough to overawe the world 
in arms, virtuous enough to keep the cardinal laws of 
God in peace, generous enough to win the grateful 
love of foreign empires, wise enough to insure the 
perpetuity of its own bounteous prosperity to the 
crowding generations which shall successively flourish 
on its soil, and migrate to its sky. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



After the services in Tremont Temple, a procession was formed and 
marched to Faneuil flail, where the city authorities and invited guests 
partook of a dinner. 

Several sentiments had been offered and responded to. The third 
regular toast was then read. 

[From the Report in the Bee.] 
Our Country — Holding in her hands the banquet of Liberty, and inviting all, of whatever 
nation or degree, to partake of it. 

This was followed by vociferous applause, the band playing " Hail 
Columbia." 

Col. Isaac Hull Wright Avas called upon to respond, and was greeted 
with applause. 

COL. WRIGHT'S SPEECH. 

He was glad that the bright star of Columbia was still visible. He 
believed and rejoiced that we still have a country, though at one time 
to-day. while listening to the orator of the day, he thought, from the dark 
picture drawn, we were to have no country. But the sentiments on this 
occasion, and the hearty manner in which they had been greeted, assured 
him that " Hail Columbia " was still a tune dear to their hearts. He believed 
that the declaration of principles read to-day was as appropriate now as 
when made by our ancestors. One of the chief grievances in that declara- 
tion was restrictions upon naturalization. Col. Wright did not believe in 
placing new restrictions upon foreignei's coming to oui- shores. He thought 
five years a full period of probation, and long enough to make good and 
acceptable citizens of all. If we had any fears for the errors of bigotry 
and religious corrup.io.i from abi-oad, the remedy and safeguard was to be 
Ibund in our common schools. With this weapon we could combat the 
errors of bigotry. There had been much talk, said Col. Wright, about 
natives having to go through a probation of twenty-one years. He denied 
this. For instance, is the child of a year's giowth under probation when 
it is sucking and puking in its mother's arms ? Is the boy who has fired 
off crackers to-day, experiencing probation V 

He said a boy does not bej^in to arrive at manhood until he is eighteen 
years of age, then he has only three years probation before he comes into 
the full enjoyment of all political privileges. The foreigner was e([aally as 
well prepared and as justly entitled to those privileges after five years 



54 

probation. What, ho would ask, did we want — do we want foreigners to 
return to their second infancy here, in this land of freedom? 

Passinfi; from his anti- American sentiment, he proceeded to lecture the 
people upon slavery. He reviewed the position taken by the orator of the 
day, and enlarged upon the subject at some length. His allusions to Mr. 
Alger were received with hisses and cheers, as were also many of his pro- 
slavery doctrines. In conclusion. Col. Wright gave as a sentiment the 
chorus of one of the Odes sung at the Tremont Temple : — 

" The Union, one and all and all as one, 
Olnsrered State-s, jour high course run! 
Hold jour safeguard still in sight — 
Uuiou, Order, God and Kight." 

Fourth regular toast. 

The Orator of till' Day. — With the eloquence of a TuUy. and the Patriotism of a Cato, he 
unites the philanthropy of a Howard, and the purity of a Christian. 

This was received with prolonged cheering, followed by a vohmtary 
from the band. On rising. Rev. Mr. Alger was welcomed by enthusiastic 
applause, which lasted some minutes. 

REV. MR. ALGER'S SPEECH. 

He said he hardly knew how to respond to the sentiment which had 
been greeted with such generous and emphatic applause. Gratefully 
acknowledging the compliment, he would lie liap])y if he could think it 
deserved. Eloquence, which had been attributed to him, was one of the 
rarest gift" conferred by Heaven and labor on man. The men, flippantly 
called eloquent, were as thick in our public assemblies as dew drops on 
t!ie grass ; those really so were as solitary as the sun in the sky. For 
wliat was eloquence ? It was first to feel an inspiration above the level 
of vulgar life, and then to impart It to others. 

" Wit chai'ms the Fancy, Wisdom guides the Sense; 
To make men nobler— that is Kloquence." 

But there was one particular in which, with due qualification of degree, 
he might admit the justice of the sentiment. When Roman liberty was 
imperilled in the house of its friends and the mob of its foes, Tully fear- 
lessly spoke in defence of it. So he had done to-day ; and he demanded 
fjr it, no censure, but plaudits. 

In reference to misrepresentations of his address and the personalities 
indulged in by several of the preceding speakers, he said, playfully, that 
he thought it hardly fair that so many men of prowess and weight should 
together pounce on one poor little fellow, and he a man of peace, and 
tear him all to pieces. To be sure they had not called him by name, but 
tiie allusions were quite perspicuous. He thought he knew what was 
meant. As when a schoolmaster flung an inkstand at a pupil's head, 
saying " do you understand me now," the boy replied, " I've got an inkWng 
of what you mean " In speaking on the subject of the country's dangers, 
how could he avoid dealing with the problem of slavery V This was 
undoubtedly the chiefest curse and peril of the land, the terrible contro- 
versies it provokes alone seriously threatening our national life and 
progress. 

He had not advocated disunion, as one speaker, in a roundabout way, 
hxd seemed to imply. He had merely pointed out what he believed was 
the only possible way to save the Union forever. In doing this he had 



55 

s'lmpl}' exercised liis I'ight and discliarged liis duty as a citizen, a Christian 
and a man — and he woukl do it again. 

He Avonld not yield to any man in his love tor the Union, and his esti- 
mation of its importance to our welfare and the good of the world. It was 
therefore that he desired to see it delivered from the evils which threatened 
to destroy it. Tiiere might be honest differences of opinion ; he had 
honestly uttered his. For the very reason that we were citizens not onlj- of 
Massachusetts, but also of the M'hole united country, we were mortified with 
the shames, elated with the prides, responsible for the wrongs, bound up in 
the weal and woe, of all parts of it. The Free States — partly with justice, 
and partly with injustice, — bear the odium attached in the public opinion 
of the world to the Slave States. Our State freedom and National Union 
was a unicpie tiling in human history, and was not fairly appreciated 
abroad. We had a component independence, yet an organic unity ; we 
were many in the unshackled motions of self-rule and self-enjoyment, but 
one in the confederate league of the Constitution, and the serried posture 
of defence. 

Each stands distinct in peace — let war dismay, 

The multitude of States in union blend; 

So varying tints in tranquil sunshine pl.iy, 

But form one iris if the storm descend. 

And fused in light against the clouds that lower, 

yorbid the deluge, while ihey own the shower. 

Mr. Alger said he had often wished to see one addition upon our 
country's banner — the solemn and immaculate face of Washij\'GTOn 
painted there, encircled by the constellation of the Union, lending its 
majestic morality and invincible might to the national ensign. For with 
that serene and victorious countenance engraved on its folds, could it ever 
be lifted above an unjust cause'? Streaming at the head of a rightful 
one, could it ever go down or be turned back ? Sooner should sun and 
moon fly from their socketed orbits. 

Mr. Alger closed by thanking his fellow-citizens for the honor they had 
done him and offered the following sentiment: — 

The A7nerican Flag, with its emblematic blue, red and white 1 Unfurled in the name of 
God, emblazoned with the face of Washington, and upborne in the spirit of itight, it shah be, 
to friends, mild as its azure; to foes, terrible as its lightning ; to citizens, eternal as its stars. 



MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN, July 6. 

[From the Report in the Transcript.] 

Votes of Thanks were passed to Rev. J. M. Manning, chaplain, John 
Quincy Adams, reader of the Declaration of Independence, the marshals, 
choir, C. F. Barnard and the escort, for their services upon the Fourth of 
July. 

Alderman Bonney moved a reconsideration of the vote, in order to move 
an amendment, to include the orator. Rev. Wm. R. Alger. He thought 
it no more than proper that such a course should be pursued. Not that 
he sympathized with all the sentiments which he chose to utter, but because 
it would be manifestly improper to make him an exception to tiie rule that 
has been universal from the beginning, and to do it upon grounds which 
were just as applicable to gentlemen who have preceded him, whose ad- 



56 

dresses were as much against the feelings of the members of the govern- 
ment, and against the proprieties of the occasion, as this. To make him a 
mark, for no other reason than because he did not square vith our indi- 
vidual views, would be, not only injudicious, but unjust — and putting our- 
selves in the same position as he put himself in taking so extraordinary a 
course. 

He hoped, therefore, that the motion to reconsider Avould prevail, when he 
should move to include an order tendering thanks to tlie Rev. Mr. Alger, 
with tlie usual recpiest to have it printeil. He was willing that his vote 
should go upon the record, and stand by the side of the oration. jNlr. 
Alger might take the credit of his oration and he would take the credit of 
his vote. 

Alderman Frost said : I never will embrace an opportunity to abuse a 
man behind his back, or to say any thing unkind. I do not thank any 
man for improving an opportunity, either in the pulpit or elsewhere, to 
abuse me and my brethren, where I have no opportunity to reply. I see 
in the papers a printed copy (said to be) of the oration which was deliv- 
ered on Saturday. There is not one of these printed ones which is a cor- 
rect copy of the oration as it was delivered. Some of the most objection- 
able part of it, has been, for some reason or other, omitted. Now my 
view of the whole matter is, that that gentleman is nor, entitled to the 
thanks of the city government, nor entitled to any compliment from us, 
for embracing an opportunity like that of the anniversary of our national 
birthday, to throw into the faces of the people of Boston, or a city govern- 
ment of Boston, made up of all parties acting for the public good, meeting 
on common ground to celebrate a national birthday, — I care not who 
embraces such an opportunity, or such an occasion to set forth his own 
peculiar political views, where there is no opportunity of a reply. And 
therefore, I cannot, under any circumstances, vote any compliment to any 
man who delivers such a discourse. I have nothing to say about Mr. 
Alger, — nothing unkind to say behind his back, were he present I should 
say a great many hard things. If we let him alone, and let the subject 
jiass, we shall have done our duty. 

Alderman Wightman said he was not willing to endorse the oration of 
Mr. Alger, by vote of thanks or otherwise. He would not seem to endorse 
any thing which is insulting to those whom we are taught to respect. There 
was no necessity of travelling out of the legitimate path of patriotism to 
vilify men who stand high in the community, like Robert C. Winthrop and 
Edward Everett, names which would live long after Mr. Alger's is dead 
and forgotten. The oration was also insulting to the body by which he 
was invited to make it. He was invited to deliver an address carrying 
out the views of the Declaration of Independence. AVas the subject so 
threadbare that he need take up a hackneyed abolitio!. sentiment and 
speak an hour upon that '? — making an oration filled with Garrisonian 
platitudes. He would never sanction the printing of that document in 
any way. 

The yeas and nays were then taken on the question of reconsidera- 
tion, with the following result: — 

Yea — Alderman Bonney. 

Nui/s — Alderman B.-ewster, Dlngley, Hatch, Frost, James, Nute, 
Pierce, Rich and Wightman. 

Absent — Aldermen Carter and Sumner. 

So the reconsideration was refused. The Board then adjourned. 



57 

MEETING OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. July 9th. 

[From the Report ia the Journal.] 

T/ie Tliaiiks aj'thc Cit)/ Council. — Among the papei's which came from 
the Board ot" Aldei'men for eoncuri'ent action, were the resolves tendering 
the tlianks of the City Council to the chaplain, reader of the Declaration 
of Independence, the chief marshal of the day and his assistants, Capt. 
Rogers, of the Boston Light Lifantry, his officers and men, Rev. Mr. Bar- 
nard, &c., all of which passed in concurrence without a dissenting voice, 
excepting the resolve relating to the chaplain and reader, when 

Mr. IIaukis, of Wai-d 5, moved to amend by inserting " Rev. W. R. 
Alger, the orator of the day." 

Mr. Dressek, of Ward 4, suggested that the amendment would be more 
appropriately met thi'ough an independent ordei", but the mover of the 
amendment took no notice of the suggestion. 

On motion of Mr J. B. Richardson, of AVard 11, the yeas and nays 
were ordered on the amendment. 

At this stage of proceedings, Mr. Harris, of Ward 5, stated that he 
should have been happy to accept the suggestion of the gentleman from 
Ward 4, but he was de:;idedly in favor of passing a vote of thanks to the 
orator, for the reason that that gentleman had been invited by tlie commit- 
tee of the Common Council to deliver an oration, without any dictation or 
suggestion as to his subject, and in complying with that invitation, the 
orator acted as an individual, and took upon himself the i-esponsibility of 
selecting his own subject; and it was ibr the public to judge respecting its 
merits. If for no other reason, as a matter of courtesy a vote of thanks 
should be passed to him. Custom, tor years, ever since the city was estab- 
lished, has made it a rule to return a vote of thanks to the individual 
delivering the oration on the anniversary of American Independence, and 
whatever the sentiments contained in the oration, the whole responsibility 
rests on the orator who uttered them. He would not at this time, said the 
gentleman, express his own private views or convictions of the right or 
Avrong about the matter; but he would say that when he came where he 
then stood, he came with the understanding that there was to be no party 
feeling, and he believed the vote of thanks was due to the oi-ator. Inas- 
much as he had performed a duty which he had been called upon by the 
City Council to perform. 

Mr. PoxD, of Ward 2, regretted that the gentleman from Ward 5 hatl 
not fallen in with the suggestion of the gentleman fi-oiu War.l -1, and 
expressed the opinion that no one would for a moment doubt the propriety 
of passing the resolve as it comes from the upper branch, for the reason, 
that if the resolve was passed with the amendment proposed, there was not 
the least probability that in its amended form, it would meet with any 
favor in the Board of Aldermen. 

Mr. Pond, of Waixl 5, stated that so far as his experience went, there 
had always been a separate resolve in favor of the orator, and that the 
matter now was taking an extraordinary course. One word occurs, said 
he, in the resolve, relating to the chaplain and reader, which, if the 
amendment to incorporate die orator's name In that resolve should be 
adopted, would seem to be entirely erroneous, and that word was, " appj-o- 
priate." So far as the purpose of the amendment was concerned, it was 
peculiarly unfortunate that that word should have been inserted in the 
resolve, for no one could endorse It. 

The question on the amendment proposed by Mr. Harris, of Ward 5, 
was then taken, and the amendment was rejected by the following vote : — 

8 



58 

Yeas — Messrs. Bailey, Bryant, Harris — 3. 

KaifS — Messrs. Birry, Bi-adford, Col)l>, Daltmi, Damrell, Dresser, Emer- 
son, Faxon, Fonl, French, (xibson, Hale, Jos-<elyn, Krueger, Mason, 
McGilvray, Morrison, MuUin, Nichols, Palmer, Parkman, B. Pond, J. A. 
Pond, W. F. Ri(diardson, J. B. Richardson, Roberts, Stetson, J. M. 
Stevens, Talbot, Thayer, Thompson, Tyler, Waldron, Warner, Washbuuo, 
Wedger, Whiton — 37. 

Absent — Messrs. Bayley, Beal, Johnson, Merrill, Shaw, Smith. Tu.\- 
bnry— 7. 

Musical. — The whole subject relative to music on the Common, was, 
on motion of Mr. J. B. Richardson, referred to the City Solicitor, lor the 
])nrpose of obtainining his opinion as to the authority of the City Council, 
to aj^propriate money as contemplated in the amendment offered in the 
upper l)rancli. 

Sundry papers from tlie School Committee were referred to the appro- 
priate Committees. 

Mr. Dresseh, of AVard 4, ofl'ered an order tendei'ing the thanks of the 
City Council to the Rev. W. R. Alger, tor the oration deli^ ered by him 
before the nnmicipal authorities on the occasion of the recent celebi-ation 
of the Declaration of American Independence, and that a copy be re- 
quested of him for publication. 

On motion of ]\lr. Stkvexs, of Ward 3, the yeas and nays were 
ordered on giving the order a second reading. 

]\Ir. Dresser said he thought the office of orator was a peculiarly inde- 
pendent one, and that the orator selected, whoever he might be, had the 
liberty to express such sentiments as he pleased. For himself, he did not 
purpose to express, at this time, his own sentiments, and this Board was 
not here tor the ])ui-pose of expressing its sentiments, but to tender a vote 
of thanks, as had always been customary, whether the sentiments uttered 
by the orator met their own views or otherwise. lie believed such a vote 
should be passed as one of the actual courtesies of the occasion — upon an 
actual state of facts, and as a mark of regard for the reputation of the 
man, Avho has discdiarged his duty faithfully and honestly, and as a matter 
of courtesy, if for no other reason, it belonged to him. It was not by any 
means to be understood that, because the Council passed a vote of thanks, 
that they or any one of the members acceded to, or adopted the views 
expressed by him. If there be error in that oration, he said, let it go 
forth to the woi-ld, and let truth combat with error; if there be error, let 
the error rest where it belongs. Another consideration was, whether the 
Council advocate or tolerate the right of free speech. The action of the 
Council on this question would let future orators know and luiderstand 
that they nnist cniboily such sentiments in their addresses as may suit each 
member. 

INlr. Wasiiuurn, of Ward 8, moved to lay the whole subject on the 
table. Rejected. 

The same gentleman moved that the further consideration of the subject 
be specially assigned for Thursday evening next. Rejected. 

The cjuestion was then taken on giving the oi-der a second reading, and 
rejected by the following vote : — 

Yeas — Messrs. Bailey, Bryant, Dalton, Dresser, Faxon. French, Hale, 
Harris, INIcGilvray, Lierrill* Parkman, J. A. Pond, W. F. Richardson, 
J. B. Richardson, Stetson, Talbot, Whiton — 17. 

]Vai/s — Messrs. Barry, Bradford, Cobb, Danu'ell, Emerson, Ford, 
Gllison, Josselyn, Kreuger, Mason, Morrison, MuUin, Nichols, Palmer, 
B. Pond, Roberts, J. ]\I. Stevens, O. Stevens, Thompson, Tvler, Waldron, 
Warner, Washburn, ^^\Hlger— 24. 



59 

Ah.H'iit—Mem-s. Barley, Beal, Johnson, Shaw, Smith, Tliaver, Tux- 
bury — 7. 

Mr. Halk, of AVard 7, ofTcred the following order:— 

Ordered, That in the opinion of this Council, the orations delivered in 
accordance with the usage of this city, on the anniversary of the Declara- 
tion of Amei-ican Independence, should contain no sentiment npon any 
political question likely to be offensive to any member of the Board of 
Aidei'men or Common Council, and whatever in other respects may be the 
nierits of such orations, the thanks of the City Council ought not to be 
given to any orator expressing sentiments distasteful or offensive to any 
member, and _ that this Board will never favor the publication, for the 
use of the citizens of Boston, of ^any oration denouncing political doctrines 
fa\oi-ed by any considerable ])ortion of its members, orspeaking discour- 
teously or sevei-ely of the supporters of any institution approved by them 
or tiicir political associates. 

Tiie reading of the above resolution excited considerable merriment for 
the moment among the members, but they soon resumed their accustomed 
silence and digmty upon Mr. Hale's rising and stating that he did not offer 
the resolution for thejjurpose of excitlng^a laugh, and the resolution which 
he had offered did not expi-ess the scntnuentsVhlch he entertained. He 
never should approve or adopt its sentiments, nor make them a disclaimer, 
and it might not bo deemed strictly in accordance with parliamentary rule 
to offer an order and then ^ ote directly against It ; but he desired to see the 
feeling of the members, and for that purpose he moved the yeas and nays. 

Mr. KuuEGER, of Ward 1, moved to amend the resolve by adding "that 
whenever we ])ass a vote of thanks, we don't mean any thing." 

Previous to taking the cjuestlon upon giving the order a second readin"-, 
-a motion made by Mr. lloiiKirrs to adjourn, prevailed. 



[From the Diiily Bee of July 14.] 

ACCOUNT OF THE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION 
IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

So much uproar in Ephesus has been occasioned by Mr. Alger's oration, 
that It may be Interesting and profitable to note the manner In which our 
brethren In South Carolina celebrate the glorious Fourth, and to observe 
the extreme care which they exercise In avoiding, on that day, any allu- 
sions to the e.xclting subject of slavery, and how strictly they guard against 
any " incendiary " or partisan expressions ! We have before us, m the 
Charleston Mercury, several reports of these gatherings In South Caro- 
lina, and as they are all of the same character, we select from two of them, 
the celebration at Charleston and one at St. IMatthew's Parish. Orations 
were delivered at both, which the Mercury says were of a very high order, 
and the orators took occasion to declare for secession and a Southern 
Republic, unless the administration should see to it that slavery Is estab- 
lished In Kansas. They also berated Senator Sumner in goodset terms, 
and hoped that the representatives of South Carolina would thrash every 
"' northern fanatl^^ " in Congress. These sentiments, we are told, were 
greeted with warm applause. But the sentiments given are the most re- 
freshing and Instructive, and we quote a few out of the many, hoping that 
■the patriotic and moderate spirit, the friendly comity exhibited In them, 



60 

will teach Mr. Alger and- a:W;ancli. violators of " good taste " to take warn- 
ing, and feel themselves,pK(gPT^^^ajilQiooislie(l ! 

The only Union that we want is fclxe avaioh'of the South to dissolve her connection with the 
North. 

A Southern Confeihracy—The time has come when the South must look to herself. May she 
break loose all ties with Yankeedom, and form herself a Shiveholdiug Coufederucy. 

Equality and the Union, or Disunion and the Sword. 

God speed the hour when South Carolina will be the first to shake off the shackles of I'edera 
tyranny, and serve as a model to her sister States of the South. 

The sons of South Carolina always hold them.^elves in readiress to maintain and defend the- 
peculiar institutions of the South, under all circumstances and at all hazards. 

We don't know how these sentiments may strike our friends of the 
Courier and the Post, but the Charleston people thought them extremely 
good. We should really like to have the opinion of the Courier upon the 
amount of love for the Union manifested in these sentiments. 

Here follows another choice set of very inoffensive and expressive sen- 
timents, and there were many more of the same sort. Will such agitators 
and severely personal speakers as Mr. Alger take notice : — 

Gen. Bonknm, successor of Brooks — Able to lash with tongue and hand, may he keep in niind- 
the achieveuieiits of his predecessor, and when (trginnent has faihcl, wipe out every stain 
attempted to be thrown upon the people or in.stitutions of the South by the magic aid of a 
cowhide. 

To the Orator of the Day — Though young and in bloom, we hope that a few years will bring- 
him to a state of maturity , that he may be able to cane Sumner, standing, sitting, or Ij iug. 

Hnn. L. M. Keitt — Held in the highest estimation by his constituents, may he have a bright 
and glorious page in the history of South Carolina. 

Hon. L. M. Bonham, Member of Cons;ress from ijf/g-p/jc?^— May he supply himself with a 
cane, named after his predecessor, of sufficient strength and size to beat, whenever his coun- 
try's rights demand it, all the Abolitionists from the government seat at Washington. 

Preston S. Brooks — The sagacious and patriotic .statesman ; the chivalrous and gallant 
offi<er ; history will record the deeds he has done ; his name is identified with the glory of his 
country. 

Col. L. M. Keitt — Our Roman Scipio : may he never cease his march till Northern aggres- 
sion is forced to acknowledge the truth of his eloquence. 

If the reading of those does not reassure the Boston Aldermen and 
Councihnen, we don't know what will! Here follows a pleasant and 
friendly expression or two : — 

Northern men with Southern principles we meet as friends ; but the Abolitionists we salute 
with a good coat of the inside of a pine and the outside of a goose, with a lighted lucifer match 
stuck to it. 

The hemp crops of Kansas ought to be applied in a domestic icay, to hang Free State agita- 
tors in the Territory. 

Here are two or three of a highly jocose character, and we commend 
them to those who like to laugh : — 

South Carolina— The Banner State in supporting and promoting the principles of human 
rights. 

The Fourth of July — A day sacred to liberty, talked of elsewhere, but enjoyed here alone. 
A pod of red pepper in every man"s eye 
Who will not celebrate the I'ourth of July. 

The President of the United Slates — We hope he will not prove recreant to the various con- 
stitutional duties assigned him by a majority of his fellow-citizens. 

E.c-President Pierce— The model President and staunch patriot. " Serus in caelum redeat.^'' 

That last, freely translated, reads, " May he be a great while in getting 
to heaven!" We commend the perusal of the above South Carolina 
Fourth of July sentiments to tlio.^e Boston gentlemen who are so exqui- 
sitely sensitive about the expressions that are proper on such occasions. 



